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Designer Talk

December 03, 2013

City (and place) branding is notoriously difficult. Some argue it can’t be done at all, but I disagree. As long as you remember why you are doing it and who you are doing it for, I believe it is possible to define a city in terms of a single core thought.

Canberra is in the process of introducing a new brand, and I haven’t seen the brief, but usually the stakeholders are looking to attract inward investment (which brings in jobs and money), more tourists (who bring in money and create jobs) and attract the best talent, whether these are entrepreneurs, students or skilled workers, moving in from the rest of the country or elsewhere in the world. Get it right and it can help drive the city economy, create more opportunities for everyone, including existing residents, and improve the quality of life for all. I don’t think any city would have an issue with these outcomes. What can also come with this success is an increased sense of civic pride with people speaking positively and spreading the word often more effectively than any marketing activities could achieve.

The primary target audiences for this type of brand usually lives outside the city, in other areas of the country or further a field. These audiences will be very broad and respond to very different messages. So the brand has to work hard, often via national and international campaigns. There is also a need to appeal to the locals, but these are usually the secondary targets, even if they have the louder opinions.

Getting the branding right is obviously the tough bit. A city is made up of so many people, stories, histories, experiences, philosophies and backgrounds, defining and differentiating it from other cities is hard. The brand needs to based on truths and have proof points to back up the core proposition. A city can’t just decide to change the way it markets itself, if it is not happy with the way it actually is. And it also needs to consult widely and test the proposition to make sure it has got it’s thinking right before creating a new visual identity and tone of voice.

In my opinion, Canberra is famous for government, being the capital, administration and for being a bit dull. Its nearly 20 years since I was last there, so I co-opted my good friend and Canberra boy, Marcus Hickman, for help with some more up-to-date views. I enjoyed my stay, but almost everyone he knows who has visited the city has found it boring. Canberra is a quiet but very comfortable place to live, rather than a vibrant and innovative city (which the brand team seems to want it to be).

So whilst I like the new CBR visual identity and the use of the airport abbreviation, I would not associate the city with being confident and bold. This is my big issue with the brand - I don’t think they have got the thinking right. I believe brands need to be aspirational and big enough to grow into, but they also need to be rooted in enough truth for audiences to believe. I suspect Canberra has gone a bit too far with the confident and bold, hoping that the city can grow into this without the sort of backlash that city brands can attract.

If I was looking to define Canberra, it’s not automatically obvious what it’s strengths are. According to Marcus, these would include the National Art Gallery, National Museum of Australia, Parliament House, Tidbinbilla, Canberra Deep Space Tracking Station, Australian War Memorial, National Portrait Gallery, Questacon and politics in general. It’s a bit like a smaller, watered-down version of Washington DC, and maybe the city could have learnt a few things from how that city is branded. The team has obviously rejected a lot of these strengths in the search of something new and more exciting, portraying it as bold and confident, which in my opinion is shaky.

And I’m not surprised that the locals have not responded positively. As well as Australians being a pretty cynical bunch, the city residents have seen-through the definition and rightly asked questions. They also probably don’t really understand why it is being done and why. The proof of the pudding will be in how successful the brand is with its primary targets, and how successful it is in achieving its objectives. Done well, a the brand can bring everyone together and be the platform for significant change, so I hope for Canberra’s sake, it has got its design thinking right and I am wrong.

September 06, 2013

Confused.com,
the leading price comparison site has launched a new logo and brand identity, created by brand experts Thompson Brand Partners. The pioneers of price
comparison in the UK, Confused.com are experts in saving their customers money.
Over the years they have become known for Cara, their singing icon who featured
in TV advertising, and for recent Nectar points campaigns. However, in a
crowded market place, Confused.com made the decision to reposition and rebrand.

A rebrand campaign was planned to reposition the company in the minds of consumers,
which featured BRIAN the Robot who is on a mission to save the UK money. The
campaign was launched in June 2013 during the high profile Britain’s Got Talent
live shows, alongside a new brand and website. Thompson Brand Partners created
the new logo and brand identity that worked to compliment BRIAN the Robot
(created by Publicis London).The brief was to create a modern logo and identity, and one that better
reflects how technologically advanced the business and BRIAN are. It also needed
to be distinctive and identifiable to help the brand to stand out. Thompson’s
brand solution began by removing the Cara character from the logo, to give
flexibility to the identity. The new logo features a thought bubble to hold ‘.com’,
referencing the expertise and thinking of these comparison experts. A set of
digital textures were created, along with a new, fresh colour palette and a
substantial set of bespoke photo-real images to bring the website to life. The brand has been
rolled-out across the website, corporate materials and the marketing campaign.Joby Russell, Marketing Director at Confused.com, said of the rebrand, ‘The new
branding has given us the image we needed in order to reposition ourselves as experts
and market leaders. We were first to market with comparison technology and we
continue to innovate. The identity that Thompson created is modern and slick to
reflect that, and we’re confident that it will grow with us too.’ Ian Thompson,
Creative Director at Thompson Brand Partners, says, ‘Our brief was

to create something a little bit more grown-up. Confused.com has been around
for over ten years and was the first of the comparison sites, so we wanted to
bring the brand to a much more grown-up position. We used the thought bubble to
make a positive out of the negative of confusion. It’s not about a person
scratching their head any more.’

When Thompson Brand Partners began
working with Keelham Farm Shop in 2010, the business was in good
shape. They had a good, regular customer base, steady trade and a very good
reputation within the local community. They had an award-winning butchers shop,
strong family values, and a passion for good, local food. But owners Victoria
and James Robertshaw had an ambition to grow their business even more, to grow
the profit of the Thornton site, but also develop a model and brand that would
allow expansion and be transferable to new sites.Thompson engaged with Keelham through the Design Council’s ‘Design in
Demand’ programme with a brief to design a new brand identity that would
encapsulate the simple homemade quality at the heart of the Robershaw’s ethos,
to help drive the growth of the business.Thompson’s design approach was centred around a simple proposition,
‘food tastes better from the farm’. This was brought to life by creating a
flexible portfolio of components for the brand to allow Keelham the flexibility
and freedom to roll out across all aspects of the business and to individualise
each of the unique departments within the shop. The custom font, colour palette
and visual style helped with flexibility, and a handdrawn illustrative style
for icons articulated themes and messaging in a distinct way. The new branding has since been applied throughout the shop, inside and
out, as well as to packaging, the website, uniforms, communications and vehicle
liveries, driven by Thompson and the team at Keelham.The rebrand has already delivered fantastic results, especially
impressive in an extremely competitive market. In 3 years since the rebrand,
turnover is up 52%, profit margins are up to 32.4% (from 28.4%) and
weekly customer numbers are up 27%. All of this has been achieved with a
commitment to affordability, with an average basket of 37 items bought at
Keelham on 13 Feb 2013 was 17% cheaper than Asda, 18% cheaper than Tesco, and
28% cheaper than Sainsbury’s.

The most exciting development has been the acquisition of a site for the
next Keelham Farm Shop in Skipton, North Yorkshire. Planning permission has
been secured and work starts on site in Autumn 2013 leading to an opening in
2014.

“With
the help of Thompson Brand Partners, we have articulated our brand values and
developed an exciting visual identity which has refreshed our business without
losing what we had and helped drive considerable growth. Importantly, the
branding is also being successful in enabling us to build our business further
and has created a template to enable future growth including other farm shop
sites.” Victoria Robertshaw, Joint Owner, Keelham Farm Shop.

The museum is the largest
railway museum in the world, telling the story of rail transport and its impact
on society. With National Museum status, it has the important responsibility of
representing the subject area’s past, present and future. In recent years,
however, the museum was suffering appealing mainly to enthusiasts and not
families families, resulting in 4 consecutive years of falling visitor numbers.NRM knew that it needed to
review its brand in order to drive visitors numbers and increase family appeal.
With funding increasingly hard to come by, these uplifts were crucial if they
were to meet their ultimate objective to grow revenue to sustain their
business.

NRM undertook a brand
repositioning exercise, defining its brand essence as ‘Connecting Generations’ and
defined a new essence and set of values. Thompson Brand Partners was appointed
to create a new visual identity to articulate the new brand and to help improve
consistency of communications and behaviour.

Thompson created a
contemporary brand identity, but one that also reflected the rich heritage of
rail travel. The brand was brought to life with a new logo and branding
designed to reflect movement and speed. Thompson also introduced the use of
name in full, rather than the abbreviation ‘NRM’ as a reminder of the national
status and specialist subject matter of the museum. The agency also created
extensive brand guidelines and a large selection of applications designed to
help the Museum team roll-out the new branding, including the website,
merchandise and signage.The results have been fantastic, against all objectives set. After the rebrand,
NRM saw their visitor numbers increase by 15% between 2011 and 2013. Family
visits have improved too, increasing from 41% to 59% of the total visitor
numbers. All this in a falling local market, which saw visitors to major
attractions in York down by 12% from 2009 to 2012. Online visits increased by a
huge 34% between 2010 to 2011. The rebrand delivered a staggering return on
investment: an additional 7 visitors for every £1 spent on the rebrand
exercise.Thompson Brand Partners’
Creative Director Ian Thompson worked on the branding himself and thoroughly
enjoyed the project: “It doesn’t get much better than this! A fantastic project
with a wealth of history, iconic imagery and wonderful reference, all combined
in a re-positioning brand exercise for one of the best museums in the world.
The results speak for themselves!”

August 27, 2013

Thompson Brand Partners has created a new identity for what promises to be a bold new space for contemporary art in the UK.

The Hepworth Wakefield launches ‘The Calder’ on Thursday 29 August, their new contemporary art space in the grounds of their site in the former industrial area of Wakefield.

The Calder occupies part of the Caddies Wainwright Mill, a 19th Century textile mill on site at The Hepworth, which has remained undeveloped since the 70s. The initial restoration work on the mill has created a 600 sq m uninterrupted space for contemporary art exhibitions. The space is designed to be temporary, remaining open for three years, courtesy of owner and landlord Wakefield Council.

The river that runs right next to The Hepworth Wakefield is the inspiration behind the name of the new space, so significant is its role in the history of the site and now its contribution to the architectural dynamic of the iconic building.

Presenting a changing contemporary art programme to complement the collection and exhibitions in the 10 main galleries, The Calder will open with an installation by leading contemporary artist Roger Hiorns, running from 30 August to 3 November,with free admission.

Thompson Brand Partners worked closely with the team at The Hepworth Wakefield to devise the name, visual identity and launch campaign for The Calder.

The typographic visual approach uses heavy caps to help to articulate the remit and attitude of the new space with bold, occasionally challenging statements.

The brand has been realised by Thompson Brand Partners across signage, staff uniforms, printed publications and marketing material both on and offline.

Head of Marketing and Communications Hollie Latham says of the new identity: ‘The Hepworth Wakefield is really gaining recognition so it was important that the identity for the new space felt like an extension of what we’re about, not something completely unrelated. The brief was to create something that works alongside what we have, but that is distinctive enough to appeal to a much wider audience – predominantly younger. Thompson has helped us find something more than just a brand identity – it’s a whole way of being that allows us the flexibility to develop and change.’Thompson Brand Partners’ designer Ash Spurr said, ‘Approaching the creative aspect of the project through copywriting allowed for a more direct and bold approach than could have been achieved through images. The Hepworth staff really embraced the brand and haven’t been afraid to take risks with it. It would have been very easy for the gallery to go with the safe and easy option, but they gave us the freedom to develop a challenging, and fun identity that gives the space not only its own identity, but a platform for debate and experimentation.’

August 07, 2013

East Street Arts are a Leeds-based, National arts organisation, who marked their 25th anniversary with a rebrand by Thompson Brand Partners.

East Street Arts is a
national arts charity, which provides space for visual artists to grow and
develop by providing support, mentoring, workspaces and making facilities as
far afield as London, Leeds and Newcastle. They also believe strongly in the
power of visual art in transforming communities with visual art, and manage
events across the UK.

The charity has ambition and
determination to grow beyond their Leeds base, but they were struggling to tell
people what was at the core of what they do. Over the years, their visual
identity had become confused, having often been reinvented for new projects and
publications, and it wasn’t supporting their growth.

Thompson Brand Partners
engaged with East Street Arts and their stakeholders, acting as a mentor and
catalyst, giving them the support and confidence that they needed to develop
their central proposition – as providers of space, both physical and mental,
for visual artists. Thompson brought to life this idea with the creation of a
white box device to echo the space that East Street Arts provide. To get across
the more complex idea of mental space, which is often without edges or borders,
a suite of imagery was created, which used fractured light to define a space. A
new logo was also created, a set of guidelines and templates that were easy to
roll out consistently and quickly, despite the charity’s limited resources.

The new brand has so far
been applied to brochures, leaflets, social media and a poster campaign across
Leeds, with the website and corporate materials to follow later in the year.

East Street Arts’ Artistic Director, Jon Wakeman,
said of the new visual language, “It has been so easy for us to implement. We always have so much on the go and
little time or resources, but the brand gives us easy answers – it’s an
easy-to-use toolkit, that works every time. We love it.”

July 17, 2013

Over the past 3 weeks the studio has been busy with hard working students, here to experience a taste of the design industry. A brilliant opportunity for any young creative looking for some insight in to the working world.

Above (from left) - Pearl Thompson and Josephine Davies

Pearl and Josie, (who joined us from Roundhay High School - Leeds) were set the task of creating their very own book of fonts. Inspired by Simon Garfields 'Just My Type' the girls stripped back each chapter identifying important fonts, researched each and completely reset them into a colourful dictionary of famous type faces.

As a result of their hard work and team effort they have produced something that will be useful for their colleagues here at TBP - Great job girls!

September 19, 2011

Despite a long and productive relationship with this fantastic institution, never before have we had the pleasure of working on quite so many amazing projects with Leeds College of Music!

From the (newly revamped) prospectus, to banners, sticker and adverts, their new branding is really coming to life. But my favourite is the incredible vinyl wall installation that went up on Saturday morning - a collage of over 200 photos of students and alumni, Leeds music scene, visiting professors and everything in between. We're taking pictures as we write... Stand by!

June 06, 2011

We've been dying to show you this for ages. Its our first job with Fontsmith, introducing their brand new library font FS Pimlico, which was officially launched today. Here are some pics of the booklet mailed to their customers.

And this is just the start! The next project is the big one. Its a set of booklets to celebrate Fontsmith's last '10 Years in Type' and it shaping up to be a classic. The booklets will feature the real stories of various classic library fonts including FS Me and FS Lola, bespoke typeface projects including Channel 4 and The Champions League, and the leading type design studio's client logo work. The booklets will be published in July, and you can register for a copy now at 10yearsintype.com.